Crowd gasp as robot runner flattens man during Humanoid Games in China
This is the surreal moment a human-shaped robot participating in a race ploughs into a staff member and keeps running like nothing happened, leaving him lying on the track in pain.
The scene was recorded by audience members during the World Humanoid Robot Games held in Beijing, China, on August 15.
The event - the first of its kind - featured more than 500 humanoid robots from countries including Japan, Germany and the US competing in various sports, including a 1,500m race.
Footage shows Unitree’s H1 humanoid robot advancing towards the finish line when it suddenly ran into a staff member from behind.
The worker was knocked flat, but H1 did not slow down, racing on to win the gold medal in six minutes 34.40 seconds, setting a new world record for humanoid robots.
The incident went viral online with more than 2m likes and being shared over 1.5m times as viewers blasted the machine for a "hit-and-run". The worker escaped serious injury.
Unitree founder Wang Xingxing admitted the robot was at least partly under remote control during the race so it could have been a case of human error, adding: "Next time we won’t remote control it."
The H1, priced at 650,000 Chinese yen (£66,800), also went on to win the 400m race.
Story: NewsX